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Priests join victims in call for justice

Father James Connell and three other priests have forged a union with a survivors group independent of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, calling on victims of abuse to come forward and urging more transparency from the church.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which faces more than a dozen civil fraud lawsuits over its handling of clergy sex abuse cases, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2011. As the case proceeds, we'll have updates, analysis, documents and more.

Calling it a historic chapter in the history of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, a group of victims and priests has banded together to call for more transparency from church officials and to urge other victims to come forward and file for restitution in federal bankruptcy court before a Feb. 1 deadline.

The priests and victims have been meeting quietly for roughly a year since Peter Isely, the Midwest director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, approached Father James Connell after a news conference.

At a news conference Tuesday at Plymouth Church in Milwaukee, Isely said the idea for the alliance between priests and victims was inspired by the Gospel.

"In the Christian story, which I believe in and have faith in, the truth may seem buried and dead, but there's always a way the truth will come back to life," he said. "I've always had a deep conviction that survivors and priests of integrity can turn the corner on the sexual abuse crisis. It's not going to be the bishops who do it."

Connell said that as the priests and victims listened to one another what emerged was "a sense of hope. . . . This hope is something to be kept alive."

The four priests involved forged the union with the survivors group independent of the archdiocese.

"It's a good thing that this group of priests is stepping forward to reach out to victims of clergy sexual abuse," said Julie Wolf, communications director for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. "But it's also important to note that priests throughout the archdiocese have been doing this for a very long time through their own ministries and their own parishes."

Wolf added that Archbishop Jerome Listecki "has been very visible in reaching out to victims." She said the archdiocese is starting the second round of a national advertising campaign aimed at reminding people who have been abused by clergy in the archdiocese to come forward before the Feb. 1 deadline. The campaign includes print advertisements that ran a few months ago in national publications such as the New York Times and USA Today.

The independent group of priests and victims took out a full-page ad in Tuesday's Journal Sentinel, urging further abuse victims to come forward by the deadline in bankruptcy court.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and has maintained it has less than $10 million available to pay claims. As of late November, about 100 people had filed claims against the archdiocese, saying they were abused by a priest or employee of the church.

Tuesday's newspaper ad said in part: "As priests and pastors of the archdiocese, we publicly declare our unqualified support to every victim/survivor. We hold ourselves and our institution fully accountable for any action or inaction that may have allowed these crimes to occur, the offender to go unpunished, and other children to be harmed. We are truly sorry that this happened to you."

Members of both groups, the priests and the victims, said it was not easy at first to sit down together.

Lynn Pilmaier, the mother of an abuse victim, said that when she was first approached to participate in the group, "I wasn't real eager." The last people she wanted to sit down with were Catholic priests, she said.

Father Howard G. Haase, pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church in Waukesha, said he had grown to regard some of the victims who were in the news often as his enemies.

"You are easy to dislike," he explained, "when all you are is a sound bite, a face on TV." Both Haase and Pilmaier said the dialogue they engaged in during these meetings was encouraging.

"We have a long way to go," Haase said, "but I really believe this is a tremendous start."

Mike Sneesby, another member of the survivors group, said the alliance isn't simply about "chasing money. We want the truth."